AUBURN, Maine — Joe Cormier called it “the Murphy’s law of 9-1-1.”

About two hours after training ended April 10 on a new computer dispatching system, calls began flooding into Lewiston-Auburn 9-1-1. “We’re getting five or six calls at once coming in and the four of us are trying to answer,” said Cormier, a dispatcher at the communications center that both answers calls and dispatches help across Lewiston, Auburn and Poland.

Cormier and the other dispatchers had hands-on learning and at least eight hours of classroom training on the system, called “Next Gen 9-1-1.” It all worked that night. No glitches. No mistakes.

But it was daunting.

“It was trial by fire,” said Phyllis Gamache, the center’s director.

The change was part of a $32 million, statewide initiative that is being rolled out — dispatch center by dispatch center — across Maine. It is funded by the 9-1-1 fee, which adds less than $1 to each phone bill. Maine’s first upgrade happened at the state’s Department of Public Safety headquarters in Augusta. It is tentatively scheduled for July or August at the Androscoggin County Dispatch Center in Auburn.

Immediate changes include a call-switching system that allows dispatchers to pick up incoming calls with ease, whether they came to their phone or someone else’s.

“Calls are getting picked up much faster, even if we have other incidents going on,” said Tim Hall, a dispatching supervisor.

It also had a vastly improved mapping system that can, if a dispatcher wishes, merge lots of information onto a single map.

Since the last system overhaul in 2008, every call that comes in is plotted on a Google-like map.

Landline calls appear on the map with an image of a receiver inside a red circle. Cellphone calls, which now account for about 65 percent of all incoming calls, appear as a cellphone inside of a red circle. They can be plotted on a standard map or against new, high- resolution, aerial images that pick out buildings, parking lots, playgrounds and trees.

Some older phones and phones using an Internet-based phone service such as Google Voice or Skype don’t transmit location. But all other GPS enabled phones do, allowing dispatchers and other emergency workers to trace the caller to within 20 or 30 meters, Cormier said.

Besides higher-quality maps, the new system allows dispatchers to overlay information on the map, highlighting such emergency needs as the location of the nearest hydrant.

The new equipment also clears the way for new services to eventually go online as they clear legal hurdles. Among them is calling 911 via text message.

“The new system lays the groundwork for future technologies,” Gamache said. “We’re not there yet.”